Sheathing channels are used in the production of motor vehicles to install bunched cables or a wiring harness. Sheathing channels protect the bunched cables to be installed against outside influences between the points of connection. Another important advantage is that the wiring harness may be supplied as a unit for installation and may be positioned and connected quickly in the motor vehicle.
The wiring harness or bunched cables are first fastened or bundled with traditional clips, tie wraps or other holding elements which are then anchored to the vehicle body sheet in holes or on pins or on other projections in a traditional manner.
Fastening with two different devices for holding or bundling and for attachment is relatively cumbersome resulting in a high installation expenditure. Additionally, a high degree of manual dexterity and concentration on the part of the installer on the assembly line is required. Additional bundling devices are frequently necessary to bind the cables, which are loosely encased by the sheath, into a tight bundle, which also costs time and, therefore, money.
Finally, because the thickness of the bunched cables varies from place to place, the carrier plate usually is unevenly formed and that along the sheath, cables may constantly be added or removed, and the shell must be equipped with respective indentations or recesses at the corresponding locations.
It is an object of the invention to design the above mentioned sheathing channel for bunched cables such that the bunched cables are encased, and may be fastened or anchored, quickly and easily in predetermined attachment locations. It is a further object of the invention that the cables may be adjusted to the uneven carrier surface or to the predetermined installation line respectively. It is an additional object of the invention to provide that the installed bunched cables are held by the sheath with as little play as possible.
These objects are solved according to the invention in that the walls of the clamps are guided on the legs of a tubular sheath such that they may be moved longitudinally, and that the clamps are equipped with fastening agents in order to anchor the sheathing wall on a carrier plate.
Additional characteristics of the invention are described herein while the design of the clamps and the legs of the projections simplifies the installation of the encased bunched cables because clamps may be locked in predetermined positions along the projection.
Due to the meshing of the groove and tongue when the L-shaped projections are joined together, the legs are located so that the clamps can easily be pressed onto projections along the channel axis, or pushed on from the side. The design includes groove and tongue shapes which permits the two projections to be locked immediately after sheathing the bunched cables which makes plugging in the clamps during preinstallation even simpler.
Recesses in the sheath wall permit the encased bunched cables to be slightly bent to the side on the installation surface. In addition, the slits or openings also offer the advantage that individual cables may be attached or removed.
Accordion-like folds of the sheathing wall provide an extendable sheathing space so that the bunched cables, having varying bundle diameters, are always tightly encased, with as little play as possible. Again, the recesses in the sheathing wall in the area of the accordion-like folds advantageously permit separation of a portion of the sheathing tube which is continuously extruded and rolled onto a roll, at any desired location and, if necessary, to be used as individual straps.
In order to mount the sheathing channel as tightly as possible on the carrier plate, it is an additional advantage if the bottom of the sheathing wall is also designed to be flat and with the locking projections arranged on a side wall. The bottom may be provided with an adhesive layer such as a double sided adhesive strip, to attach the sheath on the carrier plate. In this way the lateral anchoring by the holding clamps may be completely eliminated.